Psychological Safety Research Articles

MEDIATION ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN THE EFFECT OF LEADER-MEMBERS EXCHANGE ON INDIVIDUAL CREATIVITY

Leader-member exchange theory argues that positive relationships between employees and leaders will positively contribute to organizations. This research was conducted to determine the effect of leader-member exchange on individual creativity through psychological safety. The research was performed with white-collar employees in various sectors in Istanbul. The study sample consists of 390 white-collar employees, and the data were collected through online survey forms. Mediation models were used to test the hypotheses. According to research findings, leader-member exchange positively affects employees' psychological safety and creativity. Additionally, psychological safety positively affects employees' creativity. Finally, psychological safety has a mediating role in the effect of leader-member exchange on individual creativity. According to the research results, the positive relationships of white-collar employees with their leaders motivate individual creativity by increasing psychological confidence. All research hypotheses were supported. Suggestions have been provided in terms of both practical and theoretical aspects.

Experience of psychological problems in crisis events: how does social support affect teenagers’ psychological security through emotion during the COVID-19 pandemic?

ABSTRACT The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a series of psychological shocks to adolescents, it may cause psychological security problems. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of social support on psychological security of adolescents and the role of emotional regulation and the experience of COVID-19 infection. 615 ( 14.64 ± 1.29) randomly selected Chinese adolescents were tested with the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and Psychological Security Questionnaire (PSQ). Structural equation modelling results show that: (1) Social support positively predicted psychological security; (2) Social support positively predicted cognitive reappraisal, and cognitive reappraisal positively predicted psychological security. At the same time, cognitive reappraisal played a mediating role in the relationship between social support and psychological security; (3) Social support negatively predicted expressive suppression, and expressive suppression negatively predicted psychological security. Meanwhile, expressive suppression played a mediating role in the relationship between social support and psychological security; (4) COVID-19 infection experience positively moderates the relationship between expression inhibition and psychological safety. This study provides theoretical experience reference for the solution of adolescent psychological problems in crisis situation.

Breaking Employee Silence Through Dialogic Employee Communication: Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Psychological Empowerment

Employee silence, as a distinct behavior that differs from employee voice, might cause serious communication problems in organizational settings. Drawing upon the theoretical perspective of dialogic communication and the organization-public dialogic communication (OPDC) model, this study examined the role of dialogic employee communication from organizational leaders in alleviating acquiescent silence and defensive silence. Psychological empowerment and psychological safety were considered as potential mediators. The results of an online survey of 570 full-time employees in the United States revealed that employees were less likely to engage in acquiescent silence or defensive silence when they perceived dialogic employee communication from their leaders. The findings revealed the mediating role of psychological safety between dialogic employee communication from leaders and employee silence. However, psychological empowerment was not found to be a significant mediator. The theoretical and strategic implications are discussed.

От самоэффективности педагога — к психологической безопасности и жизнестойкости

<p><em>The article presents the results of the study of the relationship between a teacher’s self-efficacy and his psychological safety in the educational environment and resiliency. The participants of the study were teachers (n=113) with teaching experience from 0 to 55 years (M = 25.4), aged from 20 to 76 years (M = 49.5). The study used the method “Psychological safety of the educational environment of the school” (I.A. Baeva), “Test to determine the level of self-efficacy” (J. Maddux), the method “Professional viability” (B. Moreno-Jimenez). The obtained results make it possible to say that self-efficacy of a teacher is a predictor of resilience and psychological safety of a teacher in the educational environment. The role of psychological safety of an individual in the educational environment as an additional link that strengthens the connection between self-efficacy and resilience was determined. The obtained conclusions are of practical interest in designing a program for the development of psychological and pedagogical competencies of a modern teacher aimed at increasing his/her resilience in difficult life situations.</em></p>

Childhood maltreatment and vulnerability to substance use disorders: The mediating role of psychological security.

Understanding the factors associated with the propensity for drug dependence might be helpful in providing the best strategies for substance use prevention among youth. The present study was conducted to examine the association between childhood maltreatment (CM) and susceptibility to substance use disorders (SUDs), taking into account the mediating role of psychological safety. In this cross-sectional study, multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 400 male students from the three universities of Tabriz in 2019. Research instruments included the valid and reliable scales of substance abuse, childhood trauma, and mental safety. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, and structural equation modeling. The results showed positive significant relationships between vulnerability to SUDs, CM, and low levels of psychological safety. The evaluation of our hypothetical research model using fit indices showed that the model fits well the measurement model (CFI=0.97, GFI=0.95, RMSEA=0.058). Our proposed theoretical model suggested psychological security as a mediator between CM and SUDs. CM explained addiction in college students through reducing psychological security. Investigating these interactive processes seems to be detrimental, considering that they may enhance our understanding of the ways to reduce the risk.

Investigating the Relationship Between Psychosocial Safety Climate and Mental Illness Stigma Among Emergency Medical Service Clinicians

Objectives To examine the relationship between psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and mental illness stigma among emergency medical service (EMS) clinicians. Despite the presence of mental health services at many EMS agencies, workers often do not seek treatment due to mental illness stigma. To facilitate treatment receipt and maintain a healthy workforce, we must understand factors contributing to stigma. Psychosocial safety climate refers to the degree to which workers perceive that their organization fosters a work environment focused on the protection of psychological health and safety. Despite its relevance, the relationship between PSC and mental illness stigma has yet to be examined. Methods Participants were recruited from EMS agencies in the Northeastern U.S. Census Region. We used an observational research design and multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between overall levels of PSC using the Psychosocial Climate Scale (PSC-12) and mental illness stigma using the Endorsed and Anticipated Stigma Inventory - Workplace Stigma Subscale. We also examined separate facets of PSC to determine if one was more related to stigma. Using established guidelines and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, we compared workers rating their agencies as having high-risk (≤37 points) or low-risk PSC levels (≥41 points). Results The sample was n = 124 EMS clinicians (Mage = 29.6, SDage = 9.2, 53.2% male). Most were White (88.7%) with some college/college degree (79.8%). After adjusting for age, gender, race, education, and mental health treatment receipt, clinicians reporting that their workplaces were less focused on psychosocial safety and health (i.e., lower overall levels of PSC) also reported elevated levels of stigma (b = −0.27, SE = 0.05, 95% CI = −0.37, −0.17, p < .001). Exploratory analyses indicated that no PSC facet was more related to stigma than another. Clinicians reporting high-risk levels displayed stigma levels that were 38% higher compared to clinicians reporting low-risk PSC levels. Conclusions Psychosocial safety climate is an important and modifiable intervention target linked to mental illness stigma in EMS clinicians. Organizational policies, practices, and procedures that convey that mental health is valued and should be protected may reduce stigma and facilitate treatment receipt among this high-risk population.

Improving departmental psychological safety through a medical school-wide initiative

BackgroundPsychological safety is a team-based phenomenon whereby group members are empowered to ask questions, take appropriate risks, admit mistakes, propose novel ideas, and candidly voice concerns. Growing research supports the benefits of psychological safety in healthcare and education for patient safety, learning, and innovation. However, there is a paucity of research on how to create psychological safety, especially within academic medicine. To meet this need, the present study describes and evaluates a multi-year, medical school-wide psychological safety initiative.MethodsWe created, implemented, and assessed a multi-pronged psychological safety initiative including educational training sessions, departmental champions, videos, infographics, and targeted training for medical school leaders. Employees’ perceptions of psychological safety at both the departmental and institutional levels were assessed annually. The impact of educational training sessions was quantified by post-session surveys.ResultsDeidentified employee surveys revealed a statistically significant increase in departmental psychological safety between the first and second annual surveys. Perceived psychological safety remained lower at the institution-wide level than at the departmental level. No significant differences in psychological safety were observed based on gender, position, or employment length. Post-educational training session surveys showed that the sessions significantly increased knowledge of the topic as well as motivation to create a culture of psychological safety within the medical school.ConclusionsThis study establishes an evidence-based method for increasing psychological safety within medical school departments and serves as a template for other health professions schools seeking to promote psychological safety. Training leadership, faculty, and staff is an important first step towards creating a culture of psychological safety for everyone, including trainees.

The role of psychological safety in promoting software quality in agile teams

Psychological safety continues to pique the interest of scholars in a variety of disciplines of study. Recent research indicates that psychological safety fosters knowledge sharing and norm clarity and complements agile values. Although software quality remains a concern in the software industry, academics have yet to investigate whether and how psychologically safe teams provide superior results. In this study, we explore how psychological safety influences agile teams’ quality-related behaviors aimed at enhancing software quality. To widen the empirical coverage and evaluate the results, we chose a two-phase mixed-methods research design with an exploratory qualitative phase (20 interviews) followed by a quantitative phase (survey study, N = 423). Our findings show that, when psychological safety is established in agile software teams, it induces enablers of a social nature that advance the teams’ ability to pursue software quality. For example, admitting mistakes and taking initiatives equally help teams learn and invest their learning in their future decisions related to software quality. Past mistakes become points of reference for avoiding them in the future. Individuals become more willing to take initiatives aimed at enhancing quality practices and mitigating software quality issues. We contribute to our endeavor to understand the circumstances that promote software quality. Psychological safety requires organizations, their management, agile teams, and individuals to maintain and propagate safety principles. Our results also suggest that technological tools and procedures can be utilized alongside social strategies to promote software quality.

Ethical Leadership On Job Satisfaction: The Role Of Psychological Safety And Self-Efficacy

Ethical Leadership On Job Satisfaction: The Role Of Psychological Safety And Self-Efficacy

Conversational AI chatbots as counselors for hospitality employees

Considering the advancement of generative artificial intelligence and the mental health challenges faced by hospitality employees, this study proposes and tests a scenario of counseling hospitality employees using conversational AI chatbots in a mobile app. Survey data were collected from 553 hospitality employees in Japan. Findings reveal that employees’ expected psychological safety of AI chatbots can be improved by AI chatbots’ cuteness of appearance and emotional capability, and their expected service quality in using AI chatbots can be enhanced by cuteness of appearance, emotional capability, and psychological safety. The service quality of AI chatbots then causes their use intention, which then strengthens their willingness to recommend and help colleagues’ usage of AI chatbots for counseling. Moreover, employees’ general app fatigue can moderate the effects of AI chatbots’ cuteness of appearance on psychological safety and service quality. This study offers valuable practical implications for developing conversational AI chatbots for hospitality employees.

The impact of coaching leadership on work engagement: an empirical study from Chinese context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to unveil the efficacy of coaching leadership within Chinese organizations and bolster employees’ work engagement.Design/methodology/approachThe sample data were collected through employing the questionnaire method. The participants consisted of 234 employees and 53 supervisors in Chinese enterprises. Hypothesis testing was conducted using multiple regression analysis and the Bootstrap method.FindingsThe coaching leadership exhibited a positive association with employees’ work engagement, psychological safety and self-efficacy. It was observed that employees’ psychological safety and self-efficacy played a dual-mediation role between coaching leadership and work engagement. Additionally, employees with power distance orientation (POD) amplified the positive effects of coaching leadership on psychological safety and self-efficacy.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature on coaching leadership and work engagement by elucidating their direct influence, as well as the dual-mediating roles of psychological safety and self-efficacy. Besides, our findings underscore the moderating effect of POD in amplifying the impacts of coaching leadership. However, the nonlongitudinal survey design adopted by our study should be noted for its potential limitations in establishing causality.Practical implicationsThe findings demonstrate that coaching leadership, psychological safety and self-efficacy play a crucial role in fostering work engagement. Employees with higher POD are more likely to benefit from coaching leaders.Originality/valueThis study contributes to coaching leadership literature and provides insights into how and when coaching leadership affects work engagement in Chinese organizations.

How does managerial coaching influence knowledge sharing in the workplace? A perspective of proactive motivation model

Purpose Drawing upon the Proactive Motivation Model, this study aims to investigate the relationship between managerial coaching and employee knowledge-sharing behavior via psychological safety and learning goal orientation. This study also proposes that employee psychological safety and learning goal orientation sequentially mediate the relationship between managerial coaching and employee knowledge-sharing behavior. Design/methodology/approach This study used a time-lagged quantitative research design to test the proposed hypotheses. Using a self-administered questionnaire, data was gathered from 220 employees of information technology companies in Pakistan. This study used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) two-stage approach to test the measurement and structural models. Findings The findings of the study support that there is an indirect relationship between managerial coaching and employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviors via psychological safety and learning goal orientation. In addition, the findings also support the sequential mediation of psychological safety and learning goal orientation in the proposed model. Practical implications The results of this study highlight that managers can play a vital role in fostering proactive resource-sharing behaviors of employees in knowledge-intensive organizations. Originality/value There is limited research on the relationship between managerial coaching and employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior. This study has analyzed this relationship using a motivational perspective. It makes important theoretical contributions by investigating the mechanisms through which managerial coaching influences employees’ knowledge-sharing behavior in organizations.

A safe space and leadership matter for innovation: Exploring the role of psychological safety in the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation radicalness in Kyrgyz classrooms

The present research examines the relationship between school transformational leadership and innovation radicalness in classrooms with the moderating and mediating role of psychological safety, to provide an understanding of whether and to what extent the influence of leadership on innovation radicalness in teaching might be strengthened or weakened across various levels of psychological safety. Utilizing a dataset that included 5052 teachers working in 147 schools across Kyrgyzstan, we conducted multilevel analyses to test the proposed hypotheses. We found a positive association of transformational leadership with psychological safety and innovation radicalness in classrooms at the teacher level. Moreover, transformational leadership was more strongly related to radical innovation in schools with greater psychological safety among teachers both at the teacher and school levels. We conclude that school principals should prioritize the emotional state of teachers characterized by psychological safety by acting as transformational leaders, thereby enhancing the impact of their practices on the realization of higher innovation radicalness in the pedagogical practices of teachers.

Cultivating a psychological health and safety culture for interprofessional primary care teams through a co-created evidence-informed toolkit.

The psychological health and safety of healthcare workers workplaces and learning environments impacts the quality of healthcare services. To facilitate the psychological health and safety of interprofessional primary care teams, we curated a bilingual toolkit of 122 psychological health and safety resources comprising a multi-level categorization addressing individual, team, organization, and system-level interventions. The resources in the toolkit are organized by 7 themes, based on a clustering of the 15 psychosocial factors. Adopting the framework built on the 7 themes, this article describes the toolkit development process and how it addresses the key factors for psychologically healthy and safe workplaces to foster interprofessional collaboration. Implementation of the interventions in the toolkit is an important next step for which health system leadership is critical. Additionally, we identify several gaps and call on researchers, educators, and health leaders to address them in their future work.

Good therapeutic connections and patient psychological safety: A qualitative survey study.

Therapeutic connections (TCs) between patients and care providers are important for achieving desired patient outcomes. For patients, TC is associated with greater health self-efficacy, better health status, mental health status, and higher satisfaction with providers. The aim of the study was to examine patients' descriptions of what signals to them they have a TC with their care provider. We conducted an online survey of patients with a recent health care visit ( n = 1,766). This study analyzed the results of an open-ended question that asked how patients know they have a good TC with their care provider. Data were analyzed using framework analysis to determine the extent to which patient responses indicated TC dimensions. A thematic content analysis identified emergent themes. Of the TC dimensions, words associated with Shared Deliberation were mentioned by 60% of respondents. Other dimension mentions ranged between 14% (Shared Mind) and 2% (Bond). Thematic content analysis revealed that patient psychological safety seems to be required for many patients to feel connected. A majority of patients indicated that good TCs happen when they feel seen and heard by providers. However, it appears that prior to feeling a strong TC, patients need to feel safe to be fully welcome into the encounter. Health care organizations need to give care providers the uninterrupted time and space they need to fully connect with patients. Training about how to create a psychologically safe environment for patients should be tailored for practicing providers, leaders, and students in health care fields.

Self, Physician, and Specialty: A Qualitative Exploration of Medical Students' Specialty Identity Formation During Undergraduate Medical Training.

A physician's specialty is an integral part of their professional identity formation (PIF), not only determining the role they play in patient care but also shaping group interactions in the workplace. Prior work on PIF in medical students has focused on the development of a physician identity. However, little is known about how medical students might begin to develop divergent specialty-specific identities during medical school. Consequently, the authors aimed to explore how the process of specialty selection shapes PIF during undergraduate medical training and to develop a construct of specialty identity formation (SIF) as an important aspect of PIF. The authors used a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore SIF in senior medical students at the University of Washington between August 2022 and January 2023. The author team consisted of 6 attending physicians. Two investigators conducted hour-long, semistructured interviews, which were audio recorded, transcribed, and deidentified. After analysis, member checking was completed with 2 participants. The authors interviewed 14 students and categorized the data into 3 phases: nascent understanding, experiential grounding, and projecting forward. Participants reflected on considering their personal values, while simultaneously exploring the values and defining features of various specialty groups. Early impressions were formed based on ideas influenced by peers and mentors and later integrated with experiences on clinical rotations. Finally, participants noted engaging in a process projecting forward as they attempted to envision their potential futures as both physicians and members of a specialty group. As students explore their specialty identity, they use self-anchoring and self-stereotyping to integrate components of their evolving specialty identity into their professional identity. However, uncertainty regarding their fit with a specialty persists for many. Many sociocultural aspects of the learning environment affect SIF, including threats to psychological and identity safety.

'Safer, Not Safe': Service Users' Experiences of Psychological Safety in Inpatient Mental Health Wards in the United Kingdom.

Research on patient safety in mental health settings is limited compared to physical healthcare settings. Recent qualitative studies have highlighted that patient safety is more than just physical safety but includes psychological safety. Traditionally, psychological safety has been defined as the belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, such as speaking up, without a fear of negative consequences. However, to date, it is not clear what constitutes psychological safety for service users of inpatient mental health settings. To understand this, we conducted 12 interviews with former inpatient mental health service users. Interviews were analysed with Reflexive Thematic Analysis, and five themes were developed. All themes had subthemes. Overall, we found that participants were more readily able to draw on situations where they felt psychologically unsafe, rather than safe. Psychological safety in service users was influenced by (1) healthcare staff attitudes and behaviours towards them, (2) their relationships with other service users, (3) whether they felt they had any control over their environment and medical decision-making regarding their care, (4) their experiences of physically safety, feeling listened to and believed and (5) access to meaningful occupation on the wards. These findings suggest that changes are needed to enhance inpatient mental health service users' general experiences of psychological safety. Further research will need to (1) further develop understanding of the concept of psychological safety for service users and (2) identify interventions, and such interventions should be co-designed with service users.

Leadership Strategies to Increase Psychological Safety of Nurses: A Longitudinal Study.

A work environment where employees feel comfortable taking chances without fear and with sufficient protection from retaliation is psychologically safe. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of leader training for nurse managers on psychological safety of clinical registered nurses. The study was designed a longitudinal outcomes approach to assess nurse leader intervention (classes on leadership methods and psychological safety) with pre- and post-intervention measurement of nurse psychological safety at each time point. The intervention and nurse leader rounding were shown to increase individual psychological safety climate scores of clinical nurses. Psychological safety is an important component to consider in a nursing leadership role. Leadership interventions that focus on the tenets of psychological safety and include methods of being present, such as nurse leader rounding, can foster a sense of a psychologically safe environment for clinical registered nurses.

Relaxing into differences and energizing into differences: How group‐based play enables demographically diverse adults to co‐create a climate of psychological safety

Relaxing into differences and energizing into differences: How group‐based play enables demographically diverse adults to co‐create a climate of psychological safety

Mediating Role of Psychological Safety on Support at the Workplace and its Association with Organization Performance: Context of Indian IT Sector

Mediating Role of Psychological Safety on Support at the Workplace and its Association with Organization Performance: Context of Indian IT Sector